Triage at 3 a.m.

Friday

Sep 13, 2013 at 9:13 AM

While most McPherson residents were tucked in their cozy beds on the night of July 13, one group of people were on duty at the emergency room in McPherson Memorial Hospital, waiting for any emergency. At 3 a.m., the emergency became a reality.

Les Groves Resident of McPherson.

While most McPherson residents were tucked in their cozy beds on the night of July 13, one group of people were on duty at the emergency room in McPherson Memorial Hospital, waiting for any emergency. At 3 a.m., the emergency became a reality.I went to bed at 11 p.m., when in deep sleep I was suddenly awakened by a very sharp pain in my upper chest on the left side. I was soon aware that I was having a heart event. I immediately placed a call to 911 for an ambulance. Within four minutes, a fire department emergency pickup and an ambulance were in my driveway. This group of professional gentlemen and one lady were in my front with the oxygen and other machines ready to rush me off to the emergency room at McPherson Hospital. I was hooked up to a heart monitor and to an EKG and given oxygen. Each of the three EMTs and the lady driver knew exactly what to do.In short order the ambulance was backing into the garage where they were greeted by a team of emergency room workers, where they had set up triage, and promptly went to work, each doing the job they were trained to do in such a situation. By the time I was situated on a gurney, in the emergency room, I was tended to by a very efficient group of emergency workers. Two different heart machines, an IV line and a pulse monitor recorded my heart rate, which was racing at breakneck speed. With calm resolve, the workers knew their assignments.The emergency room staff, two nurses and the overnight doctor, monitored my every function, recording them on their computers. The head nurse quizzed me about every activity I had done in the last twenty-four hours. When he was finished with his questions, a very compassionate doctor moved in and checked all of my vital signs. In the succeeding hours of my admission, the nursing staff and doctor put together a profile which helped them determine was was in fact a very low reading of my blood sugar and very irregular heart rate.So here I am being treated for all of the contributing maladies which prompted the 911 staff, the swift ambulance trip and the triage at 3 a.m.My friends, we don’t know how valuable our hospital emergency staff is. Thank you folks for your compassion and professional action, which prepared me for the trip to the Hutchinson Medical Center and many heart and blood tests in the next week.